Voters wrong to reject Proposal 1

The six state ballot proposals clearly were one of the more interesting aspects of Tuesday's election. Michigan voters voted no on all six, and that's unfortunate. Proposal 1 should have been approved.

The ballot issue asked whether Public Act 4, Michigan's emergency manager law should be upheld. By a close margin, voters said no, the law should be abolished.

You might call the decision organized labor's consolation prize. Michigan's unions pushed hard for the passage of Proposal 2. A preemptive strike against the threat of right-to-work legislation, the proposal sought to amend the Michigan Constitution to guarantee workers' collective-bargaining rights.

Unions also viewed Proposal 1 as a threat with good reason. Public Act 4 gave broad powers to state- appointed managers assigned to keep troubled school districts and municipalities from going bankrupt. Voiding union contracts is one of them.

The emergency manager law raises additional concerns. Foremost is the emergency manager's control over a municipality's finances, extraordinary power that overrides the authority of a city's elected officials. Emergency managers report to the governor, which essentially means they aren't directly accountable to residents of the cities or school districts they're assigned to fix.

None of these objections should be downplayed. State intervention is among the last things any Michigan city or school district should want.

The only thing worse would be bankruptcy, a crisis that would apply all the worst aspects of state intervention without provisions to help a struggling city or school district get back on its feet.

In many ways, Public Act 4 was severe, but it was temporary. It was an attempt to rescue the Detroit Public Schools and the city governments in Benton Harbor, Ecorse, Flint and Pontiac from fiscal meltdowns.

Detroit, Michigan's largest city, avoided an emergency manager through a consent agreement with state government. But the Motor City's billions of dollars in long-term debt is the poster child for the emergency manager law.

Gov. Rick Snyder knows Michigan won't prosper unless its financially-troubled cities are able to reverse their fortunes. Public Act 4 might have been imperfect, but those cities will fail without state assistance.

Absent the emergency manager law, Michigan residents must ask themselves how these municipalities and the Detroit Public Schools will be saved.

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Voters wrong to reject Proposal 1

The six state ballot proposals clearly were one of the more interesting aspects of Tuesday's election. Michigan voters voted no on all six, and that's unfortunate. Proposal 1 should have been